The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for disassembling a magnetic tape cassette and more particularly a prerecorded cassette of the type having at least one two housing members which are fastened together by a rivet, screw with an unconventional head, or other type of antitamper fastener.
The housings of conventional prerecorded video tape cassettes are generally secured together by at least one rivet, a screw formed with an antitamper head or another like fastener means adapted to discourage or prevent internal access to the cassette to deter tampering, substitution or theft of the tape stored within the cassette housing. Disadvantageously, however, such antitamper devices also prevent the cassette owner form obtaining legitimate access to the tape and internal mechanism of the cassette to perform repairs or maintenance. To illustrate, disassembly of such a cassette is necessary to splice a tape which has inadvertently split with the broken end being wound into the cassette housing or to free a reel which has jammed, in order to return the cassette to a serviceable condition. It is difficult to overcome common cassette antitamper devices to perform such repairs without creating a significant risk of permanently damaging or even destroying the cassette housing. Thus, antitamper devices of the type described often prevent the accomplishment of needed video cassette repairs and result in the undesirable discarding of serviceable cassettes. Given the relatively expensive nature of conventional prerecorded tape cassettes, this is a bothersome problem to cassette owners, particularly dealers who operate cassette lending libraries.